This environmental group is launching its own satellite to learn more about greenhouse gas leaks

When the Environmental Defense Fund told commercial space guru Tom Ingersoll that it wanted to launch a satellite to measure methane from oil and gas operations, he says his reaction was “Whoa! You guys want to do what?”

A rendering by the Environmental Defense
Fund of a methane-detecting satellite. 

Yet that’s what the EDF is doing. It is well on its way toward raising about $40 million. It has tapped into the work of Harvard University researchers to fine tune sensors. And it has reached out to Ingersoll and others in the commercial space business to create a device that will be able to measure methane emissions on a 125-mile wide swath with pixel resolution of less than  five-eighths of a mile.

EDF will also get support from TED Talks, which hopes to spur fundraising for a variety of causes through its “Audacious Project.”

Read Steven Mufson’s story from The Washington Post - “This environmental group is launching its own satellite to learn more about greenhouse gas leaks.”

The Energy 202: Scott Pruitt's climate message is now official EPA guidance

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has long insisted it is difficult for scientists to precisely measure the extent to which humans cause climate change.

Chief of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt,
insists it is too difficult for scientists to precisely measure the
extent to which humans cause climate change.

Now EPA's regional staff engaging with local communities and Native American tribes have been instructed to push the same message too.

This week, EPA staffers received an email instructing them to underscore the uncertainties about how human activity contributes to climate change.

Read Dino Grandoni’s story from The Washington Post - “The Energy 202: Scott Pruitt's climate message is now official EPA guidance.”

London City Airport bans plastic straws

London City Airport has announced its plan to phase out plastic straws across all its food and drink outlets becoming the first UK airport to adopt such a measure.

Flying into London - it'll soon be plastic "straw-less".

The new measure will see all bars, restaurants and coffee shops removing plastic straws and replacing them with biodegradable paper straws which will be provided to customers upon request.

The decision came in support of London Evening Standard’s ‘The Last Straw’ campaign, urging Londoners to ditch plastic straws and put pressure on the city’s bars and restaurants to sign up the campaign and pledge for a plastic straw-free future in hospitality.

Read the ClimateAction story - “London City Airport bans plastic straws.”

Switzerland, where are your two extra planets?

Happy anniversary! It is now just one year since Swiss voters decided whether they want to live within the means of one Earth by 2050.

The Swiss aim to live within their means.

If everybody on this planet lived like people in Switzerland today, it would take more than three planet Earths to provide all they demand.

Could Switzerland have moved to a one-Earth economy by 2050, as proposed by the ballot measure? Would it have been too fast? Would it be a loss or a gain?

The ballot’s goal was consistent with what the Paris Climate Agreement requires: to restrain global warming on average to less than 2 degrees Celsius depends on moving out of fossil fuel use way before 2050. Given the large fossil fuel dependence of Switzerland, making up 72% of the Swiss Ecological Footprint, and given the technical possibilities to decarbonize energy substantively, living up to the Paris goal would be consistent with achieving a one-Earth economy by 2050. That’s a goal the Swiss government already signed up for one year prior to the popular ballot.

Read the Global Footprint Network story - “Switzerland, where are your two extra planets?"